Mantoberfest

Last Saturday I attended “Mantoberfest,” a get-together of about eight ne’er-do-well gun guys for the express purpose of converting about a thousand pounds of lead into ingots. I knew these guys are serious about their lead bullets when I saw three large Dutch ovens on three large propane burners heating up the scrap lead to pour into ingots.

“What bullets do you need to pour, Bee Yew?” asked my host Chris “PhlegmBoy” Vanberg. “Bee Yew” is my alias for cowboy action shooting. I allowed that I could use some 230-grain round-nose .45 bullets for the next “Wild Bunch” match. He sat me down in front of one of about ten Lee lead pots and handed me a two-cavity mold. It’s been about 20-plus years since I last cast bullets with a simple iron pot and a dipper on a Coleman stove. The bottom-pour Lee was much easier, partly because the electric pot kept the melt at a constant temperature, and within a couple of hours I had two hundred slugs poured. Another 20 minutes sizing and lubing them, and I had my supply.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday. Nobody worked too hard. During breaks we checked out and fondled each others cool guns, and we all took something home from it. For me, in addition to the two hundred .45 bullets and about 50 pounds of ingots I took home a renewed desire to get back into bullet casting.